What is guitar virtuosity? We tend to think of it as technical mastery — the ability to use extraordinary skill, artistry and flawless technique to perform even the most difficult passages on guitar. It's the reason players like Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, Larry Carlton and Matteo Mancuso have been dubbed virtuosos over the years.
But Joe Bonamassa challenges that concept and demands a more nuanced view of guitar virtuosity. The blues guitarist has just issued B.B. King's Summit 100 tribute album, where he trades licks with a score of intergenerational players that includes Buddy Guy, George Benson and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. .
When asked by Ultimate Guitar what makes King so special, given that he wasn't a virtuoso, Bonamassa pushed back.
“I challenge the premise of the question,” he said. “Virtuosity comes in many shapes and forms. I mean, B.B. King is probably one of the few ‘one note, instantly recognizable’ guitar players.
“Name somebody else that you could go ‘That's B.B. King' in one note.’ Clapton, maybe, [but] it'd be very hard.
“So his genius on the guitar wasn't the flash,” Bonamassa concludes, “even though he was deceptively fast, especially on those early records in the ‘50s.”
The "less is more" approach to guitar playing is an idea Bonamassa has been endorsing as of late. In a recent interview with Gibson, he encouraged guitarists to use restraint when performing in a group setting, and make ample use of their volume control.
“Leave some space,” he said. “The days of those Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai duels are long gone.”
It's an idea Bonamassa had to learn through trial and error. He admits Leslie West once told him he’d be his favorite guitarist if he played half as many notes.
Even Clapton once admitted he plays far too many notes, much to his own embarrassment. The topic came up in a 1986 interview in which he took Eddie Van Halen to task for his flashy attempt to play the blues on the track "Blues Breaker," from Brian May's 1983 Star Fleet Project mini-album.
“I always overplay,” Clapton admitted. “Whenever I listen back to stuff, I'm always disappointed. I mean, I hate listening to cassettes of shows. I listen sometimes, and think I could have done three notes to those 10. Just halved it and made it more meaningful. But it's very difficult.”
Of course, a guitarist like David Gilmour has no such problem. He's admitted his slow and tuneful approach to soloing is due to his inability to play fast, turning what others might consider a liability to his favor by focusing on melody.
And as Bonamassa notes, it isn't so much about speed as it is about making a statement. He believes the three Kings — B.B., Albert and Freddie — each exemplify that.
“To quote Warren Haynes, Albert King is probably ‘the most Immaculate Conception guitar player of all time,’” he tells Ultimate Guitar. “Nobody played like him before, and everybody played like him after. He truly came out of nowhere.
“Freddie was definitely tougher. The music was tougher. He seemed tougher as a person, and BB, to me, was the commercial success. But my favorite? It's impossible to name a favorite, because all three of them are so different.”
Bonamassa famously opened for B.B. King when he was just 12 years old and recalled the elder guitarist's kindness and advice.
“That summer, I played about 20 shows with B.B.,” he writes. “He's the nicest person I've ever met in the music business. I look at B..B, and that is exactly how I want to live my life. He's the one who said, ‘You want to watch your money; make sure you get paid right.’ He helped me write the playbook on what I'm doing now.”
In related news, Bonamassa has compared Ozzy Osbourne to the godfather of British blues and explained what guitarists should look for when buying a guitar.
